Overview and CQC Inspections

OverallGood

Our inspector's description of this service

Last updated 3 January 2018

The Symons Medical Centre is located in an urban area of Maidenhead. There are approximately 12,300 patients registered with the practice. The practice population shows a higher than average number of patients aged over 80 years old (approximately 800). There are a lower than average number of patients aged between 15 and 34 registered at the practice. Services are provided to approximately 300 patients that live in local care homes. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, this part of Berkshire has high levels of affluence and low levels of deprivation.

There are five GPs working at the practice. The practice employs two practice nurses and two health care assistants. The practice manager is supported by a team of reception and administration staff. All services are provided from:

Online services can be accessed from the practice website at: www.thesymonsmedicalcentre.co.uk

The practice also works closely works with district nurses, midwives and health visitors. Outside normal surgery hours patients were able to access emergency care from an Out of Hours (OOH) provider. Information on how to access medical care outside surgery hours was available on the practice leaflet, website and waiting area.

Since our last inspection in March 2015. The practice has renegotiated their contractual arrangements and now operates a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. GMS contracts are the most common contract in use and are negotiated centrally between the NHS and GP representatives.

Inspection ratings

We rate most services according to how safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led they are, using four levels:

Outstanding – the service is performing exceptionally well.

Good – the service is performing well and meeting our expectations.

Requires improvement – the service isn't performing as well as it should and we have told the service how it must improve.

Inadequate – the service is performing badly and we've taken enforcement action against the provider of the service.

No rating/under appeal/rating suspended – there are some services which we can’t rate, while some might be under appeal from the provider. Suspended ratings are being reviewed by us and will be published soon.

Ticks and crosses

We don't rate every type of service. For services we haven't rated we use ticks and crosses to show whether we've asked them to take further action or taken enforcement action against them.

There's no need for the service to take further action. If this service has not had a CQC inspection since it registered with us, our judgement may be based on our assessment of declarations and evidence supplied by the service.

The service must make improvements.

At least one standard in this area was not being met when we inspected the service and we have taken enforcement action.